William Moore might be as anxious as ever to get back onto the football field. The veteran safety has been on injured reserve with a designation to return since a Week 4 collision against the Vikings knocked him out of the starting lineup.
The shoulder injury now healed up, Moore returns to practice Wednesday feeling 100 percent, he told reporters before the session.
"You want to go out there and get your legs back. This is a physical game," Moore said about returning to the practice field. "My injury is a result of going into hit, and I'm going to actually need my shoulders every play, so I want to go out there and not be cautious, but I want to continue to play football the way I've been playing."
While Moore will practice this week, he won't be participating in Sunday's game as the Falcons host the Browns. The first game Moore will be eligible to return is the Nov. 30 matchup against Arizona. That doesn't mean, however, he will definitely play in that game.
When Moore hits the field Wednesday for practice, a 21-day clock starts to run where he can practice with the Falcons and not count against the team's 53-man roster limit. After two full weeks of practice, Moore becomes eligible to be added back to the active roster.
If the team doesn't feel like he's ready to be added back, the Falcons have until the end of the 21-day period — in Moore's case, until Dec. 10 — to activate him or place him on season-ending injured reserve. If Moore went all the way to Dec. 10 before being activated, his first game back would be against Pittsburgh.
Regardless, Moore is confident in how his shoulder has healed but explained that he won't know where he truly is until he's able to go 100 percent in a game. Not one to enjoy the process of watching games from the sideline, Moore is finding that his anxiety to play is being offset by a be-sure approach to coming back.
"You can't hit in practice, so my first blow might be in a game," Moore said. "I just want to make sure it's 100 percent and, like I said, I don't want to be favoring (the shoulder) throughout the season. I want to come back 100 percent and help contribute all the way down the stretch."
